WHO'S HOT: North Augusta's Lady Jackets. The quality of opposition hasn't been stellar, but there's no denying the damage they've wrought over their past two outings. The combined score of North Augusta's (15-2) past two games is 161-54.

BEST WIN LAST WEEK: Josey 56, Swainsboro 54. The Tigers may be one of the top teams in the area, much less in Region 3-AA. They found out otherwise in a shocker last week at Josey's "Treehouse."

HONORABLE MENTION BEST WIN: Washington County 75, Glenn Hills 65: The Golden Hawks may have the best guards in the area. Washington County kept running out clones of a speedy guard who could shoot from outside and make crisp passes. The Hawks handed Glenn Hills its second region loss of the year because of that guard play.

TOP AREA GAME THIS WEEK:

1. North Augusta (12-5) at Aiken (16-1), tonight: First place in Region 4-AAAA is on the line.

HOOPS HAVEN: Greenbrier's varsity teams are a combined 33-3. No other area school has two varsity squads of that caliber.

HIGH FLYER: It's a treat to watch Jerel Stephenson glide to the hoop and twirl around more than a Dutch windmill.

Maybe the Glenn Hills junior tries to do too much at times, but he's also capable of quite a lot. If he can shoot 80 percent from the line, he could average close to 30 points per game when he's a senior.

HERE'S THE BUT: Stephenson is on a team whose strengths may run counter to him ever trying to do that. Classmates Reggie Middleton and Chris Reynolds also could score 20 points for the Spartans on any given night.

The magic number might be 55 points per night out of those three. Glenn Hills missed Reynolds against Washington County.

He had to sit out the second game of a two-game suspension he drew after getting ejected for retaliating in an on-court incident.

EYE FOR AN EYE: Glenn Hills coach Richard Wallace said the retaliation came after his junior forward was punched in the throat. Wallace said all he did in response was shove back.

Two of the Spartans' three losses this season have come while Reynolds was barred because of that incident.

GUESS WHAT: New Burke County football coach Eric Parker got his high school coaching start on the basketball court.

Parker is the son of a successful state basketball coach. Melvin Parker coached for many years at Mitchell-Baker and went on to be an assistant at Albany State.

His son was an assistant on a Mitchell-Baker team that won a state title in 1990. Parker coached the girls varsity at Social Circle and the boys varsity at Washington-Wilkes before settling on football.

Parker estimated he won about 50 varsity games during his prep basketball coaching career.

THIS WEEK'S WOW: The busted play worked to perfection for Evans. Jonathan Nicely's long-range winner was a shot he'll never live down. It also was Greenbrier's first Class AAAA loss of the season.